This Is the Day to Live Your Best Life

Do you know what day it is?

Like most people during this strange historical moment, my wife and I have been quarantined at our house for nearly six weeks. We pass the time by working from home, visiting with friends and family on social media, watching streaming shows, and eating too much. The days seem to bleed into one another, erasing any chronological sense of time. 

Last Saturday, I thought all day that it was Sunday. Earthbound creatures, we are stuck in time. But God exists outside time.

With God, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day (2 Peter 3:8).

During a quarantine, though, one day can feel like a thousand years to me too! 

So yesterday, I decided to go out for a run to break the monotony. I hadn’t exercised in almost two months. As my slow shuffle built into a faster pace, my heart rate quickened. My lungs burned, but it was a good burn. A mile later, I was sweating under the late afternoon sun, buoyed by a cool breeze. 

Birds chirped. Dogs barked. A neighbor sitting with his family waved to me from his porch. And a Scripture came to mind. Psalm 118:24 says: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad.”

I know I'm kind of slow on the uptake, but as I ran through the neighborhood, it suddenly occurred to me:

THIS is the day. Not yesterday or tomorrow. Today is all we have. 

Time is a gift. It helps us mark meaningful events and moments. The day I got married. The day my friend died. The day my niece was born. The day I got the job I wanted and the day I lost it. The day I went for a run and remembered there’s still a great big world outside my door. If we pay attention, time makes us aware of the need to appreciate what we have and make the most of it. 

None of us knows when this pandemic will pass or how long we’ll be socially isolated. But it helps me to remember that God is not bound by time like we are. He is outside it, doing something we don’t know, but that we know is good and beautiful. And He entrusted us to this time and this moment in history, so we don’t have to worry. “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

I came home from my half-hour run, kicked off my shoes, and took a shower. Endorphins swirled throughout my body. I kissed my wife and cooked us dinner. THIS was the day. 

We cannot change what happened yesterday or two weeks or ten years ago.

It’s impossible to do anything about ten years from now because that moment does not yet exist. All we can do is our best today, then go to sleep at night, trusting God will handle all our joys, successes, struggles, and failures.

As Frederick Buechner said: “Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day's chalking.”

And as Jesus said: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).

So, sleep easy tonight. Whatever you’re going through, God is not limited like we are and tomorrow will be a new day, a clean slate, when you wake up. His mercies will be new, and THIS will be the day.